Summer food fun and drink - Slow food - Prawn and Goat Cheese Linguini · Tuesday August 26, 2008 by colin newell
Nothing says Summer love better than a nice batch of pasta topped with fresh local ingredients… like Goat cheese from the Saltspring Island Cheese Company – And when we visited the Farm store off of Beaverpoint Road on Reynolds, we were delighted by… well… everything.
Photo above – Canon EOS-30D 50MM Macro F11 Camry 300 Watt/s Softbox
Frankly, Andrea and I did not know what to expect. Sheep? Goats? Goat herders? Julie Andrews? Apparently, the sheep and goats were on a coffee break because the only sign of life were the staff hard at work on their products. And the tasting room! Holy fromage heavens! Every product in their dairy roster was available for noshing along with a wide variety of crispy crunchy things. And to be fair – we found ourselves here because we had just visited Salt Spring Vineyards and the neighborly Garry Oak Winery – in all seriousness readers, this has to be the safest wine tour on the planet Earth. Salt Spring Island has two wineries… so even if you swallow, you are not going to get hooped or looped if you are behind the wheel – Some of the wine sampling was paired with canapé made from the local chèvre and locally made crackers. Conspiracy! Anyway… here is what we did with the cheese… at least… some of it!
Prawn and Goat Cheese Linguini
12 Prawns – Cleaned
1/2 cup sliced white Onions
6 asparagus spears
1 Roma tomato – chopped
1/2 Cup marinated artichoke hearts
1/8 cup artichoke heart liquor
3/4 cup Salt Spring Island goat cheese
Pasta of choice
Sauté the prawns in a frying pan with one tablespoon Canola oil 2 minutes each side – drain on paper towel.
Sauté onions and asparagus spears (sliced in 1” pieces) 6 minutes
Add artichoke hearts and liquor – stir to blend
Added chopped tomato
Add 3/4 of the goat cheese – stir to blend over heat until melted
Add 1/2 ladle of pasta water to the vegetable mix and stir to blend.
Just prior to pasta being cooked, put remaining goat cheese in vegetable mixture.
Cover with drained pasta. Basil and pepper to taste.
Stir to mix.
Return prawns to dish for a final blend.
Serves 2 – Wine pairing: Red Rooster Meritage
Comment [2]
Summer food fun and drink - Enjoy an Okanagan Meritage Today · Monday August 25, 2008 by colin newell
Andrea asks… “When does your Summer Food Fun and Drink series end? And what are you going to call the new series?”
Good question.
Was thinking something along the lines of Autumn Leaves Feast of Fields… in celebrating harvest… something that resonates with me… having grown up on a small farm. It is calm. It is subtle.
Or we could call it Listeria Hysteria Pass me the Bacon Mildred…
Not so subtle.
Speaking of which, Sunday morning I was gazing fondly at a portion of Maple Leaf bacon in the fridge on Sunday whilst whipping up some of my not-yet-famous Non-Dairy Waffles... Kids love `em and you will too!
And what goes better with a nice linear stack of waffles than 8 slices of bacon?
Especially when the threat of illness, death and cholesterol posed by contaminated meats – rests over your head like a scimitar hanging by one hair from your grandmothers head…
Anyway – a Olympian tug-of-war ensued between Andrea and I… I won. Bacon in pan.
And apart from the bacon tasting vaguely like Kopi Luwak all was well –
Today in Wine: Enjoyed a 2005 Red Rooster Meritage with dinner. It had pretty bold oak that merged as the wine caught a breath. There were fairly focused blue-berry notes, some pluminess and sufficiently chewy to sustain the pairing…
Uhm.
Ahh.
Vegetarian nachos.
There. I said it.
Summer food fun and drink - Sorry we are on Island time · Friday August 22, 2008 by colin newell
I talk to a lot of employers around Victoria and the Island – food, drink and service employers that is… owners of some of the best cafes, delis and restaurants.
And I ask them: What is the number one challenge when it comes down to staying in business?
Coming through for the customer? Getting out quality product? Getting enough customers?
Nope. None of the above.
Coffee shops closed due to no staff? Brew it at home! Ascaso grinder (shown at left) reviewed over here .
The challenge is the employee. I hear story after story after horror story about the difficulty in acquiring, recruiting and retaining employees… any employees.
Hell, even the bad ones are better than no employees at all.
Examples like: “A friend of mine manages a store in Vancouver in Kitsalano and has shared a number of stories. Most recently there was the girl he had just hired, she went through all the interviews, training etc. then the day before she was to start work calls and tells him that she wants about three weeks off in two weeks, hasn’t even worked a day yet. He said that he couldn’t accomodate this request at this time so she quit before starting work. Then there was the guy he hired who worked two hours, left for a coffee and never returned. Then there are those potential employees who apply, he lines up interviews and they never show, no email no phone call just don’t show up. He called one once and asked if they were coming in for an interview and they said , “no, I am down enjoying the sun at the beach”.
Where is the sense of responsibility?
In the environment that I work in, if you do not allow for “Facebook” or “Internet” time for employees – or allow employees to pack their cell phones and text each other, you are almost setting yourself up for a revolution.
I hate to use the phrase… “Hey, when I was a kid… or a young adult…” But…
Times were not tougher 20 years ago when I started getting into the job market – I think there was an ingrained sense of obligations and responsibilities – not about what’s in it for me!
And now geezers like me in my forties (and the equivalent in women…) are the parents of these slackers. I blame us. I blame us for coddling and spoon feeding, hand-holding and indulging these little over-indulged princesses and princes.
By golly are these kids in for a wake up call one day.
That said…
Who is going to do the dialing!
For the CoffeeCrew Blog, I am Colin Newell… sitting on my duff after a hard days vacation… thinking about stuff…
Summer Food Fun and Drink - Cafe Brio reviewed in Victoria · Sunday August 17, 2008 by colin newell
There are 3 reasons to go to a restaurant like Cafe Brio.
1.) You are entertaining good friends from out of town and need them to feel comfortable short of strapping on your own apron and making them a home cooked meal…
2.) You are entertaining bad friends from out of town and need to placate them as fast as possible before they summon the Mothra and destroy everything you know and love…
3.) You are out with that special someone and you want to be able to turn that special event (It`s the 2nd Tuesday of the month, or Hey, look, it`s raining! or Wow, look how well I loaded the dishwasher!) into a really special event where you both feel relaxed, comfortable and, in all ways, loved.
Cafe Brio is that place – and in a city of 350,000, there are few places that can handle all these critical situations with aplomb and grace.
So Today. Sunday. Was selection number 3. Andrea and I decided that no reason was reason plenty to treat ourselves to one of Victoria`s best restaurants. You know, sometimes the most joy extracted from an event is when the event was planned, like milliseconds earlier… and today was no exception to that rule.
And the moment you walk through the doors at Cafe Brio, and are greeted and seated by owner/partner Greg Hays, you know everything is going to be perfect.
So we ordered a 16 ounce Rib-Eye from the legendary Quist Family Island Farm (Cowichan Valley) and a suitably fat Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon with the frite and garlic aoli. Yes, that is a 16 ounce to share. Medium-rare. And spot on.
And within the first few bites and sips, the stresses melt away. I comment to Andrea that Cafe Brio is like Rick`s Cafe from the movie Casablanca – “What do you mean, there is a War going on out there?” Cafe Brio is the food equivalent of a back rub. As familiar as an old friend and as dependable as gravity. If Cafe Brio does not satiate every food group requirement and emotional need, then there is nothing we can do for you.
Cafe Brio Restaurant is located at 944 Fort St.,Victoria, B.C. – a few short blocks up from Douglas Street and the inner harbor. They advise reservations which you can make at 250-383-0009 or Toll-Free at 1-866-270-5461 – but if it was a day like today; raining gum drops… you can probably walk in at 6 PM and find a wide variety of great tables to pick from.
Epilog – We were sated after Steak and Wine… but to top things off, we had coffee, Crème brûlée and an ounce or so of Calvados
Life is good.
